A New Beginning
by Ryuki Kokoro
Summary: One-shot. The sparkling jewel of justice, just out of reach... the super ninja has fought countless battles against countless enemies. Now he has to fight the deadliest battle, the battle with himself.


Before you start wondering, I've made a decision to put all my short stories under a different pen-name. So this is Kurmoi, just under a different pen-name, and all my short stories go here. 

Just so you don't get confused. ^_^

*

_Hatred. Everywhere you look._

Even in what seems to be peaceful Japanese suburbia. You look between the lines. Everywhere, there is so much hatred, so much bitterness. Most of it is well masked, but it is still there. No matter where you turn.

_Imagine the slaughter. Just imagine the carnage._

Shutting my eyes, I can see all too vividly the images of slaughtered bodies. These same people, with whom the hatred is formed, lie dead all over. Everywhere. I am sitting on the roof of my small house, watching the people down below. My sword is holstered and ready. You just never know when a fight will arise.

_Does one really want to live in a world so tainted as this? Isn't there something more?_

Blood stains my vision, tarnishes what beauty there could be. Blood of long-gone victims of my sword, ones who stood in my way to fight for justice. Now I see no point. Justice can never be obtained. It is like a sparkling jewel just always out of your grasp. No matter how far out you reach, it is always just further away.

_Maybe something less? Have you stooped down to that level?_

Memories are drifting back in pieces. That beautiful orange haired girl lying dead, blood slowly seeping out of a chest wound. Never would she have expected to be killed by her guardian's own sword. Her brother's, yes, but the golden rule of shinobi is to never trust anybody. She trusted me too much and you can look where she is now.

_Blood… staining, tarnishing… but oh so beautiful._

Her half sister met the same fate shortly after. Never was I guarding her, but she never would have expected to meet her death with my sword swing. The entire Mugen-Tenshin clan trusts me with their lives. What fools they are. Wouldn't they be shocked to hear that their prized assassin is actually assassinating them, one by one.

_Trust is something deep. And isn't it funny that you have so much of it, considering._

Still, there is one more person that needs assassinating. The only problem is that I do not have the courage to do it. I could face anybody else's sword, but my own…? Still a rather daunting task. It is the ancient tradition of the ninja to commit ritual suicide if they fail a task. By doing so, I am only upholding ancient tradition. I have failed more times then fingers I have on my hands.

_Just one swing of your sword, then everything will be gone._

Thoughts along those lines have drifted through my head more as of late. Maybe I should just follow this last protocol of the ninja. After all, it is what I have lived my life as, although broken more laws concerning then anything else. 

_Poor Hayate. He will have no little ninja assassin to do his dirty work any longer._

He really is an astonishing person, the one that I consider my best friend. Gone through lots in his life, not all good, yet still manages a friendly and affable, sometimes downright humorous personality, and is a good person. It has been a long time since I have seen him, because I disappeared shortly after the 'accidental' deaths of Ayane and Kasumi. 

_Either living with my mistakes in this wretched existence, or moving onto the next._

Slowly, I take my sword out of the holster and examine it. Still, although the blade has been used many a time to end an innocent, or in the majority of cases not so innocent's life, it is clean and unstained. Sharp and ready, but unstained. Most unlike what the hands of its wielder must be.

_What will you choose?_

I run my thumb lightly down the edge of the blade. Even that little pressure applied causes the blade to dig into my thumb, running down and dripping onto the tiled roof. I stare blankly at the blood. So pure, yet so fouled at the same time. Do I have the courage to perform one last act for my now decimated clan? 

_Nobody will care. It will be better for them, and surely they will see that._

Of course I do. I lift the sword. For some reason, it feels heavier then it ever has. Normally it is easy to lift, but this time it feels as though I am trying to lift a stack of bricks. Everything seems to be in slow motion. I shut my eyes. This is how it ends.

_No! Wait, stop! Don't do it!_

At first I think it was my mind telling me that it was too cowardly to let me do it. Then I open my eyes and blink. Hayate is standing in front of me, eyes wide. He wraps his hands around the blade of my sword and pulls it away. His hands are bleeding profusely from the brute pressure that he is applying.

_Leave me alone. This is something that I must do!_

I wrench the sword out of his grasp and say something that I would later regret. If he stands in my way, then he too will be brought down to his ultimate demise. He looks at me, and it is then when for the first time, we perfectly understand each other. He knows that I am not bluffing.

_Then let it be so._

He draws his own sword and brandishes it at me. My mind is blank. How did we go from me ready to face my destiny, to him and me fighting? I look closer at him and to my horror; can see tears in his eyes. He is whispering the same thing over and over again. _Don't do it. _Suddenly, I lunge at him with my sword. He isn't expecting it, and so the blow is clean.

_Hayate!_

He drops to the tiles immediately, blood seeping out of the wound, as his life ebbs slowly away. I drop to my knees beside him as he feebly reaches out for me. I take his hand, holding it gently. Perhaps soon, he will be in a better place. He doesn't know how sorry I am for it to have to be this way. Even this shouldn't be blamed on him. Because of me, he had his life stolen away.

_Life really is a precious thing, and to watch it taken away… is a horrible thing._

There are crystalline tears in his eyes as he looks slowly up and whispers those words I never wanted to hear. _It was destiny. _Then his head drops back limply against the tiles with a dull clatter. He is dead.

_Kasumi… Ayane, now Hayate. Why? _

Bending down to him, I lay the gentlest of kisses on his cool lips, before pulling the sword out of his limp body. _I am sorry, Hayate. You will never know why now, will you? I just hope that you are in a better place that you deserve, and deserves you. You always were too good for this bloodstained world, the murderous life that you led. Be happy, because it is what you deserve. _

Now there is nobody standing in my way. What am I waiting for?

_This… is for everybody. My clan, Kasumi, Ayane and Hayate. Most of all, it is for myself._

It doesn't hurt as the sword cuts cleanly through my throat. Blood, red pure blood flows freely from the wound as I drop down next to Hayate's body, as my vision grows dim. I will dishonour my clan no longer. It doesn't hurt to face my destiny. It doesn't hurt to die. 

_It hurts to face a new beginning. _


End file.
